This is the first novel in the Moralities of Marriage series, a Pride and Prejudice Variation series.
When his horse throws a shoe, Fitzwilliam Darcy misses rescuing his sister, Georgiana Darcy, from the clutches of George Wickham by only one day. Now on the hunt to find them both, the gossip beginning to swirl in London forces him to abdicate the search to his cousin, Colonel RIchard … Fitzwilliam, while he plays the wayward gentleman in Hertfordshire with his friend Charles Bingley. After a collision with his future, Darcy struggles to satisfy his attraction to a pair of fine eyes and keep his family’s scandal hidden.
Elizabeth Bennet dreams of nothing more than remaining close to her sister, Jane. When the rich gentleman, Charles Bingley, enters the neighborhood, it seems certain that Jane will make a match with him. After all, Jane Bennet is the sweetest and most beautiful woman in the county! But Elizabeth’s efforts to find her own local match go awry and she feels abandoned by the first man to cause stirrings in her heart. Her parents attempt to marry Elizabeth off to her cousin, William Collins, who is set to inherit the estate. But when she refuses, she soon finds herself In London with relatives, forced to find her own happiness.
By Consequence of Marriage is a sweet, romantic novel starring our favorite dear couple from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, wondering how the story might have changed if Georgiana was lost. It’s a great storyline for Jane Austen Book Clubs wanting to compare and contrast how our favorite characters might have changed fundamentally if Mr Darcy never attended the Meryton Assembly.
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Dark, brutal to read, but lighter than Bronte and Dickens.
This is not your sweet love story of ODC. I knew going in it was going to be tough; however, I was not prepared for brutal. This is a tension packed, blood pressure rising, frustrating, OMG everything that can go wrong, goes wrong story with misunderstandings every few pages.
First, for the purists, toss propriety and such notions out the window. This story does not follow the rules of etiquette, comportment, or propriety. There is only a hint here or there and you might as well get accustomed to a more modern take on sensibilities.
Next, our characters are totally different than they are in canon, and these people are not nice. Mrs. Bennet was not above snatching Elizabeth up by the hair when she displeased her and Mr. Bennet simply closed the door in her face when Elizabeth called out to him. Mrs. Bennet gave her an hour to pack as she was cast from the house and sent to live in London. As hard as this was to read, I have a feeling it is closer to real Regency life than what Austen usually gave us. Austen did not write of the darker side of domestic life. That was left to Dickens and his ilk.
There are several story threads to manage, Georgiana wanting Wickham, Wickham wanting Georgiana’s dowry, Mrs. Bennet wanting Bingley for Jane, Bingley wanting Jane, Jane wanting Bingley, Caroline wanting Darcy, Darcy wanting Elizabeth, Elizabeth wanting Darcy, Lady Catherine wanting Darcy for Anne, Colonel Fitzwilliam wanting Anne, Anne wanting Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Bennet wanting Lizzy for Mr. Collins, Mary wanting Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins wanting Elizabeth, and Mr. Bennet wanting Longbourn for Elizabeth. I think I covered everyone.
Elizabeth is different in this version. She seems younger in her thoughts and actions. We watch as she acts and reacts to situations in a less mature manner than we are accustomed. She is supposed to be witty and intelligent and instead seems lacking on all points. It is like a sour note at a musical; you can’t quite put your finger it; you just know it’s wrong.
So too was her rejection of propriety and comportment, “…she was a woman with the power to shape her own destiny!” Really… no single woman would dare hire a hackney and travel across London alone, unchaperoned, and unaccompanied so that she could go to Darcy House in order to return his book.
Then there was her attitude toward demanding her own will and way in doing as she pleased. She was prone to just walk off by herself neglecting propriety which dictated that she shouldn’t. She and her party were at a busy Inn where they had stopped for a brief rest and she walked out of sight of her company [intending to walk around the building]. This was so wrong on so many levels. It was incredulous that she would even attempt to do such a dangerous, unsafe venture and then act as though it were perfectly fine. Then she was angry that everyone was upset with her and then they ignored Collins rough treatment of her.
Loss of her place in her family: Elizabeth feels the sting of her family’s diminished feelings toward her in this version. It is very different than canon and she suffers from feeling alone and vulnerable. She even made a comment that she now understood how Mary felt.
Collins is slime and looks forward to the day when he is married to Cousin Elizabeth and he can properly discipline her into the wife he deserves. He has already left bruises on her person and was not gentle in ushering her about or dictating to her what she should or should not do in her daily life. He constantly reminded her that things would change once they were married and she had to submit to him as the wife of a parson should.
Bingley is more decisive in this adaption. He puts his foot down in trying to control Caroline and of course she ignores him and goes behind his back. He is too much in love and anxious to marry to notice.
Caroline is herself and as evil as ever. In this version, she possesses sensitive information that could give her the upper hand on possibly forcing Darcy’s compliance. It is not deal with in this 1st book so I have to assume it will come to light later.
Georgiana is not the sweet, shy, Miss from P&P and most JAFF variations. Lady Matlock called her a trollop and worse since she had lived and traveled with Wickham for the last several weeks, with no evidence of their being married. This was hard for Darcy to swallow as she was no longer his sweet innocent sister. Wickham had so totally brainwashed her with his lies that she no longer believed anything her family told her against him. She stood by her man. This, of course, is similar to what Lydia did in P&P. Just reverse the silly miss and the shame consequence to a different family.
After the W&G wedding, there are clues or foreshadowing of problems from the honeymoon trip to Bath. Letters arrive from Jane [also on a honeymoon trip to Bath] where she had met an unfortunate Mrs. George Wickham. Apparently things weren’t going well for her, bless her heart. I do want to know what happened to her but how long will I have to wait until it is resolved.
The Earl and Countess Matlock are master planners as they attempt to do damage control for the family. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s mother is simply awesome in managing both Darcy and the Colonel. She is as skilled in strategies as our dear Colonel. The acorn didn’t fall far from the tree.
Lady Catherine gets wind of trouble in the family from her spy Collins and when she storms Matlock House we get the surprise of the century. I did not see it coming and don’t think I’ve seen it before in JAFF. OMG!!! She and her brother the Earl decide Darcy should marry Anne immediately for the sake of the family.
There were so many misunderstandings among our characters that there is no way to list them all. By the end of book 1, I was tired to death of all the shenanigans. I looked ahead at the reviews and saw that there are two more books and, thanks to a reviewer, learn nothing is resolved by the end of the third. I may not attempt it. Like many others, I was lured by the $0.99 price of book 1. I am not happy to learn there are 6 projected to be in the series. It will be this time next year before book 4 comes out. By then I may not care.